Sonderbooks Book Review of Caravan

*****Caravan

by Dorothy Gilman

Reviewed January 19, 2002.
A Sonderbooks' Best Book of 2002 (#1, Fiction Rereads)
Doubleday, 1992. 263 pages.

I can’t think of another book quite like Caravan. It’s as thrilling and full of suspense and life-or-death escapes as a spy novel, but there’s no spying involved. It’s got a beautiful love story, but that doesn’t start until toward the end, so you couldn’t call it a romance. Besides that, the love story is completely untraditional. You could probably call it a coming-of-age novel, but no one else ever came of age the same way that Caressa Horvath did. I don’t want to say anything about the plot, because almost every chapter has a surprise or a narrow escape. Let me simply say that the first time I read this book, it stayed on my mind for weeks. An excellent book.

I thought of reading this book because a brand-new Dorothy Gilman book is sitting on my desk at the library, waiting to be processed. Expect a review in the next issue! (The only reason I left it on my desk was that I opened the box after I was already supposed to have gone home.)

I first discovered Dorothy Gilman in a lucky moment when I was browsing the shelves of the Torrance Public Library as a teen. Her first novels were the Mrs. Pollifax books. They are thoroughly delightful, about an elderly lady who was bored with life and volunteered to be a CIA agent. (We have some of them at the Sembach Library. The first one is called The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.) She was sent on a simple courier mission and ended up embroiled in dangerous international intrigue. Later on, I discovered that I like Dorothy Gilman’s non-Pollifax books perhaps even better.

Dorothy Gilman’s characters are never boring, and are always quirky. I find that makes them endearing and likeable. Most of them have frightfully dysfunctional backgrounds, but they end up coping with life just fine. Rather refreshing, for a change.

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

*****Caravan

by Dorothy Gilman